Sheet-conditioning apparatus



April 20 1926.

-1 P; wlLLsEA SHEET CONDITIONING APPARATUS Filed Augus t 8, 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 3 \\i H, Hm Ii g y g i.

INVENTOR.

p; I 3y WMATTORNEYS.

April 20 1926; 1,581,526

L. P. 'WILLSEA SHEET CONDITIONING APPARATUS Filed August 8, 1924 '3 Shee'xs-Sheet 5 E3 III" JJ'I'WIIHHIIHUX J Mm I VENTOR.

Patented Apr. 20, 1926.

TUNETEQ STATES LOUIS P. VVILLSEA, F RGCHESTER, NEW YORK.

SHEET-CONDITIONING APPARATUS.

Application filed August 8, 1924. Serial No. 730,888.

To aYZ whom it may concern:

lie it known that l, LOUIS P. lVILLsnA, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Sheet- Conditioning Apparatus, of which the fol lowing is a specification.

The present invention relates to sheet conditioning appaatus and more particularly to the type in which sheets of papers or the like are treated or conditioned to give them the temperature and moisture conditions of the room in which the printing is to take place, so that the sheet will not change its size after being brought to the printing room and in this way interfere with perfect printing especially in multicolor work. An object of the invention is to provide a conditioning apparatus which will be compact in form, simple in operation, and inexpensive to manufacture. An object of this invention is to provide a conditioning apparatus in which the operative may from one position introduce sheets into the apara-tus and remove sheets from the apparatus. A further object of the invention is to provide a construction having distributing means which will distribute the conditioned air upwardly between suspended sheets and inwardly from opposite sides of the sheets. A further object of the invention is to provide a conditioning apparatus in which the carrier for the suspended sheets and the distributing means for the conditioned air are relatively adjustable, so that the machine may be adapted to accommodate sheets of different lengths.

To these and other ends, the invention consists of certain parts and combinations of parts all of which are hereinafter described: the no'vel features being pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan View of an apparatus constructed in accordance with this invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail sectional view showing the manner in which the ring or internal gear is supported on the head of the central post;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary vertical section through the apparatus.

Fig. d is a detail view of the driving means for the carrier;

Fig. 5 is a detail view of one of the clamps;

Fig. 6 is a side view showing the distributing means in its lowest position; and

Fig. 7' is a similar view showing the dis tributing means in araised position;

Referring more particularly to the illustrated embodiment of the lnvention, 1 indicates a. post or standard having a; base 2 ing radially from a bearing supporting ring 8. The flange 4 may be also provided with openings 4* in which bearing rollers 0perate, the latter being mounted to turn on vertical shafts 9 secured against turning on the outside 'of the flange 1, and the peripheries of the bearing rollers 10 operating through the openings l adjacent to and at right angles to the peripheries of the bearing 1-ollers 6 to form a support for a ring or internal gear 11 which has internal teeth 12. This ring or gear is engaged by a pinion 13 which is mounted on a shaft 14 journalled vertically in the head 3 and having in its lower end a worm wheel 15 which is engaged by a worm 16 on a shaft 17 supported on the head 3. This shaft '17 in turn has a worm wheel 18 thereon engaged by aworm 19 on a shaft 20 journalled on the frame 3 and carrying a pulley 21 which by a belt 22 connects with the pulley 23 on the shaft of a motor 24 supported by a bracket 25 on the standard 1, whereby the internal gear 11 may be driven.

Arranged in an annular series about the post 1 are uprights or posts 26 having brackets 27 secured to their upper ends and supporting a ring or annulus 28 which has an L shaped cross section and whichhas its horizontally presented portion forming a trackway. Tie rods 29 connect the brackets 27 with the post 1 above the head 3, so that the ring or trackway 28 is held in a fixed relation to the post 1.

Supported by the internal gear 11 and the annular trackway 28 is a carrier which 1noves in an endless path, in this instance, a

circle. This carrier embodies preferably a plurality of brackets 30 bolted at 31 to the ring 11 and having rods 32 secured thereto and extending to the trackway '28, these rods having at their outer ends: rollers 33 which travel upon the trackway. The rods 32 are connected in pairs by ring segments 34 near their outer ends and ring segments 35 near their inner ends. The inner ring segments 35 are connected with the outer ring segments 34 by rods 36 which extend radially with reference to the axisof turning of the carrier. The rods 36 as well as the rods '32 may be provided each with two clamping devices 37. In this instance, each clamping device 37 hasan arm 38 and a bifurcated arm 39, a detent 40 being pivoted at 41 in the bifurcation of the bifurcated arm and being adapted to cooperate with a projection 42 on the arm 38 in such a manner as to limit the downward movement of the detent or clamping member 40 while permitting the upward movement of such clamping member so that a sheet 43 may be introduced between the clamping member 40 and the projection 42 and then automatically gripped between such parts.

With the end in view of attemperating or conditioning the sheets, there is provided a 'fan or blower drawing the air from the room in which the printing of the sheets is to take place, into a fan casing 45 which discharges the air downwardly through a dischar e portion 46 into the inlet portion 47 of the distributing means, the inlet 47 being adapted to telescope or slide in the discharge portion 46 so that the distributing means may be raised or lowered with refer- 'ence to the fan casing 45. The distributing means, in'this instance, embodies a base distributor 48 in the form of an arc, operating within the circle formed by the posts 26,

this base distributor having openings 49 in its top wall which will throw the conditioned air upwardly between the sheets suspended on the endless carrier. There is also provided an outer edge distributor 50 which is arc shaped and operates on the outside of the circle formed by the posts 26 above the plane of the base distributor, the dis tributor having openings 51 in its inner vertical wall to throw the conditioned air between the sheets from the outer edges (of said sheets. There is also provided an are shaped distributor 52 arranged within the arc formed by the distributor 48 and above the plane of said distributor like the distributor 50, this distributor 52'having openings 53 in its outer vertical wall to throw the conditioned air between the inner edges of the sheets 43.

V Bracket arms 54 support the distributor 52 from the distributor 48, while bracket arms 55 connect the distributor 50 with the distributor 48. Each of the bracket arms 55 has an opening through which a post 26 extends and at opposite sides of this opening 4 rollers 56 and 57 are provided, the roller 56 cooperating with the outer face of the post and the roller 57 cooperating with'the inner face. of the post below the roller 57. By having the rollers 56 and 57 in different planes the weight of the distributors 48 and 52 will be such as to hold the rollers 56 and 57 in tight engagement with the posts 26 and thereby remove a great amount of the weight of the distributing means from the hoisting means of such distributing means. The hoisting means, in this instance, embodies extensions 58 on the brackets 55, each connected with a cable 59 which passes over a pulley 6O journa-lled on a bracket 28 of the post 26. Any desired number of these cables may be provided, these cables leading to a grooved drum 61 journalled on the post 1 and having a gear 62 connected thereto and meshing with a gear 63 on a vertical shaft 64 journalled in a bracket 65 at its upper end on the post and in a bracket 67 near its lower end on the post. The lower end of the shaft has'a bevelled gear 68 meshing with the gear 69 on a stub shaft 70 which has a crank handle 71 through which the shaft 64 may be turned to wind the cables 59 on the drum or to unwind such cables from the drum. A pawl and ratchet device 72 is employed for holding the drum in its adjusted position. It is apparent that by this arrangement the distributors 48, 50

and 52 may be raised or lowered so that they may lie in a position to correspond to the length of the sheets suspended from the endless carrier. A wall 73 may depend from the trackway 28 to partially enclose the sheets atthe sides.

In the operation of the invention the operator of the machine enters at the side opposite the fan casing 45 between the ends of the distributors and places a sheet to be conditioned or attemperated upon two of the clamps 37 of the rods 32 or 36 so that the sheet hangs downwardly as shown in Fig. 3. The conveyor is turned through the motor 24 and moves the sheet between the two distributors 50 and 52 and above the distributor 8 which discharges the conditioned air between the sheet. The sheets travel in a circular path and return to the point where the operator has placed them in the machine so that they may be readily removed and printed upon. The distributing devices 48, 50 and 52 are vertically adjustable so that sheets of different lengths may be effectively treated.

This machine is especially designed for conditioning sheets which are to be printed in a number or different colors, it being very desirable that as each color is printed the sheet shall be in the physical condition which it was when printed upon in the first instance, as otherwise the difi'e'rent colors position. The conditioning air is delivered between the sheets in the manner that they are ell-ectively attemperated or conditioned, notwithstanding their lengths.

hat I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A sheet conditioning apparatus comprising an endless carrier from which the sheets are suspended, distributing means for conditioning air discharging such air between sheets, and means for etl ecting a relative adjustment between the carrier and the distriluiting means for the conditioned air.

A sheet conditioning apparatus comprising an endless carrier from which the sheets are suspended, and distributing means for conditioned air arranged to discharge such conditioned air iipwardly between the sheets and also between the sheets from the opposite sides of said sheets.

3. A sheet conditioning apparatus comprising an endless carrier from which the sheets are suspended, distributing means for conditioned air arranged to discharge such conditioned air upwardly between the sheets and also between the sheets -from the opposite sides of said sheets, and means for raising and lowering such distributing means,v

4:. A' sheet conditioning apparatus comprising a carrier arranged to travel in a con tinuous path, means torsuspendingsheets "from said carrier, and three are shaped distributors, one of which is arranged beneath the sheets suspended from the carrier and the other two of which are arranged on opposite sides of the sheets suspended from the carrier and above the first mentioned distributor.

A sheet conditioning apparatus comprising a carrier arranged to travel in a circular path, means for suspending sheets from said carrier, three are shaped distributors, one of which is arranged beneath the sheets suspended from the carrier and the other two of which are arranged on opposite sides of the sheets suspended from the carrier and above the first mentioned distributor, and means for simultaneously raising and lowering said three distributors relatively to the carrier.

6. A sheet conditioning apparatus comprising a central upright post, an annular series of posts surrounding said central upright post, a trackway supported by the annular series of posts, and a carrier embodying a plurality of rods having sheet suspending devices thereon, said carrier being mounted to turn on the upright posts and being supported to travel on said trackway of the annular series of posts, and distributing means for conditioned air arranged to discharge air between the sheets sus pended from the carrier.

7. A sheet conditioning apparatus comprising an upright post, a. ead on said post having an annular trackway, a ring having rollers mounted to travel on said trackway, an internal gear supported on said rollers, an annular trackway surrounding said posts, an endless carrier connected to said internal gear and supported to travel on said annular trackway, and means for suspending sheets from the carrier.

8. A sheet conditioning apparatus comprising a central post, a head. supported on said post, an internal gear arranged to turn on said head, an endless carrier connected to said gear, means for suspending sheets from the carrier, and an annular trackway surrounding said post and having the end less carrier mounted to travel thereon.

9. A sheet conditioning apparatus comprising a central post, a head on the post having an annular trackway, a ring provided with rollers mounted to travel on the trackway, an internal gear supported on said rollers, rollers supported by the head and cooperating with the outer perihpery of said internal gear, an endless carrier connecting with said internal gear and extending about the same, and a trackway surrounding said central post and having the endless carrier mounted to travel thereon.

10. A sheet conditioning apparatus com prising a central post, an annular trackway, a ring mounted to turn on said central post, rods extending radially from said ring and having rollers at their ends mounted to travel on the annular trackway, inner and outer connecting pieces between said rods, rods connecting said connecting pieces, and sheet suspencnng means carried by the rods.

11. A sheet conditioning apparatus comprising a central post, an annular trackway about the post, an endless carrier embodying rods extending radially with reference to the post and supported by the post and by the annular trackway, and sheet clamping means carried by the rods.

12. A sheet conditioning apparatus comprising a central post, posts arranged in annular series about the post, a traclrway supported by the annular series of posts, an endless carrier supported by the posts and the trackway, and distributing means for conditioned air vertically adjustable on the annular series of posts.

13. A sheet conditioning apparatus comprising a central post, posts arranged in an nular series about the post, a trackway supported by the annular series of posts, an endless carrier supported by the posts and the trackway, and distributing means for conditioned air vertically adjustable on the annular series of posts, said distributing means embodying three distributors one of which lies beneath the sheets on the endless carrier and the other two lie on opposite sides of the sheets on the endless carnor.

14:. A sheet conditioning apparatus cont an endless carrier supported bythe posts and the trackway, and distributing means for conditioned air vertically adjustable on the annular series of posts, said distributing means embodying three distributors one of which lies beneath the sheets on the endless carrier and the other two lie on opposite sides of the sheets on the endless carrier, one of the last named two distributors being arranged in the circle formed by the annular series of posts and the other of the last two nalned distributors being arranged Without the circle formed by the posts.

15. A sheet conditioning apparatus comprising a central post, posts arranged in annular series. about the central post, a trackway supported by the annular series of posts, an endless carrier supported by the posts and the trackway, and distributing means tor conditioning air einbodylng three distributors, one of which lies beneath the sheets of the endless carrier and the other two of which lie on opposite sides of the sheets on the endless carrier, one of the last two named distributors being arranged in the circle formed by the annular series of posts and the other of the last two named distributors being arranged within the circle formed by the posts.

LOUIS P. WILLSEA. 

